And about time, too. Actually I have to confess, I've known the winners for two weeks now, but while I knew which songs were chosen by Christina Hendricks, Cedric of The Bedlam Bards, and myself, I was really hoping to include Ms. Hendricks' actual notes. She gushed over them all (sample quote: "God, these people are amazing! I was telling Morena about it, it's just fantastic. I want a CD of this!") but wanted time to flesh out her notes since she had jotted them down whenever she had time. However, her new show "Mad Men" (Thursday nights at 10 on AMC) is getting huge reviews and record-breaking ratings — and richly deserves both — and she's been a bit swamped, so rather than keep everyone hanging I'm going to announce the winners and add the rest of her comments whenever they come in.

First off I want to say that I'd have been happy with any of the songs winning, they were that good. I know, everyone running a contest says something schmaltzy like that, but come on. These were way beyond what I was hoping for, and I had pretty high hopes. I got exactly what I wanted out of this contest: some great songs about a lady who definitely deserved them. So…

Best Original Song

Winner: "It Was Good For You, Too" by Marian CallThe song I thought captured Saffron better than any other. Can't you just see her in a slinky dress, sliding across a piano and singing to you, making you fall in love with her before you realized your gun was gone? Some nights I can't see anything else…
Christina: "She sounded just like me! It was fantastic, I really thought it was a good song even if you don't know the character. That song and 'Undressed' by Zane Stafford were the two I thought would make fantastic pop songs. I thought it was amazing!"
Cedric: "This song really captured the character of Saffron. The singer's vocal quality and delivery even recalled that of Christina Hendricks. I could see an audience that has never heard of Firefly liking this song quite a bit. Also, stylistically, sexy blues is not all that far from some of the bluesy elements in the Firefly soundtrack. Well done."

Runner-up:

"Everytime You Stow Away" by Jesse GraberThe judges were unanimous on their reaction to this. "I have to say this one made me laugh out loud," Christina said. "It was great!" Cedric said. "Well-performed and lively, this tongue-in-cheek reflection of Mal and Saffron's relationship made me laugh out loud. I liked the easy references to the show, not to mention the uke with a wawa effect. I wish I'd written this song." And I agree. Of all the songs, this one got the strongest and strangest reaction from me the first time I heard it.

Best Filk Award: "She Said Her Name Was Saffron" by Marc GunnI can totally hear this coming from a hotel room late one night after the dealer rooms have shut down (and I bet I will). This is what Mal sang to himself when no one was on the bridge. From Cedric: "It's concise, well-phrased, and funny."

Best Filk Award, Runner up: "Saffron" by J. M. HarmonHe didn't win by attrition, although he and Ziv Gur-Arye both certainly tried. But the style was good, the original song was very appropriate, and the lyrics were perfect. I want to see the music video for this. And from Cedric: "I'm not always a big fan of this type of filk, but JM Harmon does seem to have a talent for it. The choice for the original song was very appropriate, and the parody was well handled."

And the winner of the Browncoats Choice Award, chosen by you, was: "Yo-Saff-Bridge" by Ziv Gur-Arye. Ziv will receive a "YoSaffBridge Husband's Club" tee from BlackMarketBeagles.com and an autographed photo of Christina Hendricks. Thanks everyone for voting!

The songs are still available here and will be for a while yet. Thanks to all the musicians, and thank you double for your patience! Prizes will go out by the weekend, along with the marriage certificate packs that go to everyone who entered. Next time I'll try to set an announcement date when I start the contest.

Oh, there'll be another song contest. Despite the unexpected problems with MP3 hosting, online polls, and scheduling, this was still way too much fun not to. Let's see, what should the next subject be…?

16 comments on “Sing a Song of Saffron winners”

Congrats to the winners, especially to Marian Call. I fell in love with "It Was Good For You, Too" from the first moment I heard it. And I must say, this contest was a lot of fun to be involved with.

My only quibble is where you mention that the songs have been and are still available – I've been trying for weeks to use the 'download' links that are set up, but I always get this message:
"The Hosted File cannot be found.
Unfortunately, the uploaded file you are looking for doesn't exist or has been deleted."

Will these links be fixed anytime soon? I'd hate to miss out on getting these songs onto my iTunes because of a glitch.

Tried to win by attrition? Must be the language-barrier but it sounds like I tried to win by wearing down the judges or something :/
I mean the contest said you can multi-enter, I had a few ideas…
Hope that I got it wrong

Huh? Jeff – are you on drugs? – this whole page is dedicated to a song competition about Christina's character 'Saffron' – ie it's not a popularity contest regarding who's the hottest chick on Firefly… lol – well, good luck with Kaylee and River anyhow…

Umm… so back to the point… Top stuff guys!!! Well, that's one Big Damn Hero impressed. Special congrats to Marian – totally agreed with the choice, that song is a total crack up… I think it would be funny to people who haven't even seen the show, but it is pure genius (evil) knowing exactly where it's coming from…

Looking forward to hearing Christina's comments. I was actually hoping to speak to her in person about it – she and Morena were booked to do a talk in Brisbane and I had tickets but they cancelled I can only hope that is because they'll be too busy shooting for the next BDM…

Heehee… sorry Jeff… that's a good idea btw… you should have said… I'm actually writing a song 'bout River at the moment… anyhow, looking forward to the next one – war songs would be heaps fun, could go total all out rock, or hippy peace folk things…

Is there a good central place to find — or post — filks/original songs that have already been written? I've got some I've never shared anywhere (one about River, a couple in the "army songs" category) and was wondering where the best place would be.